What's next in the campaign for wallan wallan Regional Parkland

The State Election is rapidly approaching and the State Government is yet to commit to the wallan wallan Regional Parkland (wwRP). After working towards a shared vision for the parkland for 15 years, we could see the window of opportunity closing. The wallan wallan Regional Parkland Alliance formed in 2025, to make a coordinated push for the wwRP.

Our community campaign has spread the word to our members and supporters through social media, local events, radio shows and flyering. We’ve had organisations from ACF Community NxNW, to the Wallan Scout Group to the Victorian National Parks Association sign on as supporting organisations. Our petition to the Legislative Assembly gained more than 3000 signatures – one for every hectare of the proposed parkland – by the time it closed on August 3. This is a substantial number given it’s a local issue with limited mainstream attention.

Alongside this community campaign, we’ve been working on our political campaign. This has involved meeting with State and Federal MPs to seek their support for their Parkland and to ask them to advocate for it to their colleagues and relevant ministers. We’ve met with Labor, Green and Liberal MPs seeking bipartisan support for the wwRP.

There was significant political activity in July. We met with then Environment Minister, Enver Erdogan, at the top of Green Hill and found him receptive to our vision. At the end of July, we met at Parliament House with Labor MPs representing the Merri catchment, and the then Minister for Water, Harriet Shing. Since these meetings, both the Environment and Water ministers have changed in the ministerial reshuffle following the change of Premier.

The wwRP Alliance meeting with Labor MPs at Parliament House. (L-R):
Claudia James (Mitchell Shire Councillor), Anthony Cianflone (Member for Pascoe Vale), Claire Weekley (FoMC),
Bernadette Thomas (CEO, MCMC), Ben Davis (FoMC), Kat Theophanous (Member for Northcote),
Harriet Shing (former Minister for Water), Kathleen Matthews-Ward (Member for Broadmeadows),
Paul Macgregor (BEAM Mitchell Shire Environment Group), Rob Eldridge (President, Wallan Environment Group)

The catchment Labor MPs have since brought our case for the wwRP to the Minister for Planning, but the outcome of that meeting remains unclear to us. After a flurry of activity and promising signs, we still don’t have the commitment we are seeking.

At the same time, the Merrifield North Precinct Structure Plan (PSP) that guides the development of part of the wallan wallan area has been fast-tracked. The wwRP boundary does not appear in maps of the draft PSP. Instead, indications are that the wwRP boundary will be determined by the PSP. A parkland limited by the vision of the piecemeal precinct planning process, rather than declared and holistically included in future planning is the future we fear.

So where to now for the campaign for the Parkland?

In coming weeks, we will turn again to our members, supporters and wider community for support, likely with a letter writing campaign asking people to email their local MPs and relevant Ministers seeking a commitment to the wwRP. We will continue to advocate for the park to local MPs and the State Government, while shifting to an election campaign footing, seeking commitments from all candidates in the catchment and their parties to the wwRP.

Development in the upper catchment represents the greatest threat to the health of Merri Creek in coming decades. Friends of Merri Creek and our community partners have a history of successful campaigns to protect Merri Creek from major threats in the past. We intend to build on this history and see our vision of the wallan wallan Regional Parklands realised.

Cr Claudia James, Mitchell Shire; Rob Eldridge WEG and Minister Erdogan, at Green Hill, Wallan,
photo by Paul Magregor (BEAM Mitchell Environment Group)

Image credit: Members of the wwRP Alliance at the official launch on Green Hill with Ros Spence MP, Member for Kalkallo who sponsored our petition, photo by MCMC